Higher-order modulation for the uplink (UL) has been introduced for some wireless communication networks. One example is Release 7 of the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) specifications. In these specifications, for example, a user equipment (UE) may operate (or not) in the 16-symbol quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) mode. When the UE operates in the 16QAM mode, it has to utilize one of several newly defined enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) transport block tables appropriate for transmitting at data rates up to the maximum rates allowed by 16QAM operation. When the UE does not operate in the 16QAM mode, it has to utilize one of the original E-DCH transport block tables.
In practical deployments, not all cells of a radio network are necessarily upgraded at the same time to support a new feature such as 16QAM operation. Therefore, it is likely that in initial deployment, some cells in the network will support the feature and other will not. As the UE moves within the network, it will have to add cells to and remove cells from its active set that may or may not support 16QAM operation. A cell that supports 16QAM operation can properly receive signals from a UE not operating in 16QAM mode. However, a cell not supporting 16QAM operation can not properly receive signals from a UE operating in 16QAM mode. For this reason, a modification to the active set update procedure has been introduced whereby the network can signal to the UE whether it should start or stop 16QAM operation. The network would typically signal to the UE to stop 16QAM operation when a cell not supporting 16QAM operation is added to the active set, and may signal to the UE to start 16QAM operation when all cells in its active set support it.
Although this modification allows the network to signal the start or stop of 16QAM operation to the UE, the UE still does not have all the information it needs to properly switch between the two modes of operation. When switching operation, the UE cannot use some E-DCH configuration parameters as they are currently defined.
Additionally, when these parameters are changed, the enhanced media access control (MAC-e) needs to flush the UL hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffers which contain MAC-e PDUs with the old enhanced transport format combination index (E-TFCI) tables.
However, the current active set update procedure does not have any provisions to change the above mentioned E-DCH configuration parameters. Some of the parameters, such as E-DPCCH/DPCCH power offset and Reference E-TFCI, may be changed with the active set update but only when a serving E-DCH cell change occurs. However, starting and stopping of 16QAM operations may also occur when adding a new cell to the E-DCH active set without changing the serving cell.
The absence of this signaling in the active set update procedure prevents proper transitioning between 16QAM mode and non-16QAM (normal) mode when a cell is added or removed from the (E-DCH) active set or when the E-DCH serving cell is modified. By providing the mechanisms for proper transition between 16QAM mode and non-16QAM mode resulting from an active set update procedure, the embodiments to be described herein allow a reduction in re-configuration delays and a reduction of signaling overhead (power and bandwidth).